Many ready-to-eat (RTE) cereals include an outer coating comprised mostly of sugar. These coatings provide for enhanced bowl life of the cereal in milk, meaning the length of time until the cereal becomes soggy in the milk. In addition, the coatings serve to create a crispy texture that is not brittle and a frosted appearance to the outside of RTE cereals when desirable. Consumers enjoy RTE cereals that have these outer coatings because of the enhanced sweetness and taste that they provide in addition to the frosted appearance. Recently consumers have been asking for lower calorie RTE cereals that still have the same sweetness and appearance, but with a reduction in the calories from sugar. Parents also want a reduction in the amount of sugar consumed by children from all sources including from cereal.
One way to reduce sugar levels in sugar coated RTE cereals would be to replace all or a portion of the sugar with artificial sweeteners. However, many of the known artificial sweeteners have off flavors that a segment of the consuming public can detect and finds offensive. US application publication 2006/0286223, discloses use of maltodextrin having a dextrose equivalent (DE) value of 20 or less to replace sugar in sugar coatings for RTE cereals at levels of from 16 to 28%. Another issue raised by the removal of the sugar from the coating is that the bulk provided by the sugar needs to be replaced and the frosted appearance of the outside of the cereal will also be dramatically affected when sugar is removed from the coating. Thus one needs to replace the bulk and maintain the frosted appearance and taste that consumers associate with an existing product when sugar is removed from the coating for that product.
It is desirable to provide a sweet coating for a food product such as a RTE cereal that has a reduced sugar level while maintaining the bulk, taste and appearance of a full sugar coating. It is desirable to do so without resorting to use of artificial sweeteners.